WHO Declares Global Health Emergency Status for Monkey Pox Outbreak

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency to combat the new Monkey Pox or Mpox outbreak. This outbreak quickly hit east and central Africa.

The UN agency issued the highest level warning after a unanimous decision by scientists monitoring the growing spread of the virus. Thousands of Mpox cases and hundreds of deaths were recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country in central Africa, in 2024. In the last few weeks this disease has begun to spread to neighboring countries.

The scale of the outbreak and its potential to spread across the continent and beyond has led the WHO to declare it the eighth public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) in the past two decades . WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the explosion of Mpox cases in the Congo this year should be a global concern.

“Something we should all be concerned about,” Ghebreyesus said when he announced the warning, as reported by the Telegraph, on Thursday (15/8/2024).

The PHEIC Declaration is designed to help organize resources for “exceptional events”. Because to reduce the spread of disease across borders, it must be addressed with international action.

Distribution in Congo

More than 500 people have died this year due to infection with the virus in the Congo. The country has recorded nearly 15,000 cases of suspected Mpox infection.

The spread and increase in cases has left many public health officials concerned that the virus will spread further. New mutant strains appear, or cemeteryand signs that the virus is spreading more easily from person to person have added to these concerns.

“The discovery and rapid spread of a new cluster of Mpox in eastern Congo, its discovery in neighboring countries that have not previously reported Mpox, and the potential for further spread in Africa and beyond is a reason very concerned,” said Ghebreyesus.

Mpox spreads through physical contact and causes a rash, fever, pain and in some immunocompromised patients can be fatal. The first human case was found in northwestern Congo in 1970, when a nine-year-old boy developed a severe rash that reminded medics of smallpox.

Scientists have identified two cemetery different in Africa. Shore 2 was discovered in West Africa and in 2022 it triggered a global epidemic when the disease spread to more than 100 countries, especially affecting gay and bisexual men.

But the pressure is at the heart of the current warning cemetery 1. Plague cemetery 1which has a higher mortality rate, was initially often limited to a few households in remote areas and was linked to families who killed and ate wild animals in the forest.

Strain Clet 1b

But scientists have warned that there are annual cases of the disease cemetery 1 in the Congo has been increasing gradually over the years. And as the numbers were increasing, the researchers confirmed that there was a new species, named cemetery 1bin eastern Congo earlier this year.

“Medical officials in the region report seeing an increase in Mpox patients with severe symptoms by the end of 2023, including expanding lesions, high fever, and higher mortality rates. “This disease does not require sexual contact to spread and infect children and adults,” said the local scientist who initiated Mpox research in the field, Dr. Leandre Murhula Masirkika.

“I knew this was something different because the symptoms were very different from cemetery 1 which we usually see in the Congo,” he said.

The first case of pimping

He saw that this epidemic caused many deaths, miscarriages and rapid spread from person to person. Dr Masirkika and a small team of local researchers found the first case of clade 1b to a bar in Kamituga. There was a patient there, a bartender who had the Mpox clade 1b variant.

The man who is said to be a pimp often has sex with female sex workers. In September, he had intimate relationships with three women at the same time. They were all taken to the hospital soon after due to their serious illnesses.

Since then, thousands of patients have come to clinics and hospitals in South Kivu with severe symptoms, including many children. According to Dr. Masirkika, the death rate reaches 5 percent in adults and 10 percent in children. This figure has increased rapidly compared to the death rate of 0.2 percent in clade 2.

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